Day 161: Argument Driven Engineering!

Today was the second day of building for our students that are piloting the Argument Driven Engineering curriculum. Dr. Sampson, a professor at the University of Texas, has partnered with us to test his new curriculum. His previous creation, Argument Driven Inquiry (ADI), has already been very successful in classrooms all across the country, and we are honored to be the first school to ever see (and attempt) ADE.

The first design challenge is to build a cooler to hold vaccines for children in needy areas around the world. A few of their designs are pictured below. Dr. Sampson's goal is to get students to actually learn the science behind the projects, not just complete an exercise without learning (which is often the case in engineering designs in science classes), and his protocols for student discussion and pacing of the lessons have really forced the students to take an active role in their learning.